“TechStars is about finding great entrepreneurs that will go and create great companies, the crucial thing during the programme being the ability to iterate fast.”

On average, 30-50% of the TechStars teams significantly change what they’re doing, which I’ve noted being the case even with Springboard teams. It’s been great to follow the progress so far via team updates and the daily blog posts.

The Timeless Art of Follow Up Emails

What stroke me most with the Springboard teams was how well informed the teams were on us mentors and the immediate personal follow ups.

Turns out that one of the first things Jon guides the teams in is the importance of follow up and research on the people they meet up with. Considering that the teams meet over 100 mentors, 10 per day during the first weeks, they do get invaluable and intense practice on the craftsmanship. They are also not allowed to send plain copy and paste follow up emails.

Learning #1: It’s exhausting and it takes time.

Learning #2: To build relationships takes time and sincere effort. Real relationships are great for your business and often make or break a deal.

One of the most notable and recurring stories I keep hearing, whether it’s about raising funding or finding business partner, are about founders who came through on the other side because of their ability to stay on the radar and build a relationship: Keep the people you like and wish to have a future relationship with updated on your company progress. Being consistent, persistent, and able to show progress are highly ranked qualities, that will make you and your company rise above the noise. It’s a great way to start building trust and credibility, i.e. building a relationship. Brad Feld, Foundry Group and co-founder of TechStars, just recently summarized it in crystal clear way:

“They [relationships] evolve over a period of time. They don’t require boondoggles or fancy things; they require sincerity and substantive interaction over a long period of time. Then, when there are moments of opportunity, these are the people that I go to (and hopefully who come to me.)”

Keep in mind when approaching people: Everybody is busy. Don’t make people feel bad if they haven’t got back to you within 24h, especially if they didn’t initiate the contact. Instead of sending notes like: “This is the third time I email you”, or “I emailed you last week but you haven’t got back to me yet”, send a nice short follow up note with reference to your previous message.

Paula is Digital Product Advisor and Top 100 Women in Tech in Europe, focusing on Product, Go-to-market, and Internationalization strategies. Rated as one of the very best startup mentors in Europe, she has to date mentored over 150 digital technology companies on product, marketing and growth. Pick My Brain! is her fixed price service tailored to early stage startups, gender wage gap adjusted for female founders. ContactPaula for digital strategy work or book her as keynote speaker about #Startups #WomenInTech #GenderEquality #Entrepreneurship. Read more abouther work and connect @Twitter, @LinkedIn. “You never learn anything when you speak, only when you listen” – Roelof Botha / Douglas Leone, Sequoia Capital

Hi, I’m Paula Marttila

Paula is Digital Product Advisor and Top 100 Women in Tech in Europe, focusing on product, go-to-market, and internationalization strategies. Her strength is working with all stages of a product’s life cycle.

Pick My Brain! is her fixed price service specifically tailored to early stage startups, gender wage gap adjusted for female founders and co-founders.

Rated as one of the best startup mentors in Europe, Paula has to date mentored over 150 companies on product, marketing, and growth at Seedcamp and Startup Wise Guys startup accelerators. For the past decade she has been actively involved with several women in tech and entrepreneurship initiatives.

Her deep corporate experience ranges from pioneering digital media products and premium subscription services, hiring, sales negotiations, to carrying out direct assignments by the company board of directors. She holds B.S. in Business Economics in International Marketing, and Computer and Systems Sciences.

Paula is Finn full of Sisu, calls Stockholm her home, occasionally spotted in Berlin and other European hot spots. Contact her for your product, go-to-market, and internationalization strategy. Learn more about her work, connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or just Email.